Blood and Wine

Astana riders suffered due to a positive doping test for their leader

Before the start of the 16th stage of the Tour de France stage race, the peloton lost the Kazakh team “Astana”. At the request of the organizers, this cycling group in its entirety completed its participation in the “Big Loop” due to the fact that the “A” sample taken from Alexander Vinokurov on the day of his winning race with a time trial gave a positive result for the presence of traces of someone else’s blood. Laboratory specialists in the French town of Chatennay-Malabry concluded that Vinokurov used blood transfusion - a transfusion of oxygen-enriched foreign blood. This method is considered prohibited and is a type of doping.

The President of the International Cycling Union (UCI), Patrick McQuade, refrained from commenting on the matter and is ready to speak out only after the results of the “B” test are made public. In principle, this is normal practice. In general, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code, data on the “A” sample is not subject to disclosure, and it is not entirely clear why in this case they were made public. However, the organizers of the three most important stage cycling races - the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España - have their own rules. According to the code of ethics signed by the bosses of professional cycling stables, only the slightest suspicion of doping is enough to exclude cyclists from racing.

The management of Astana and Vinokurov himself strongly deny their involvement in the use of prohibited methods of maintaining physical fitness. To the question of one of the French journalists, who suggested that Vinokurov could have been transfused with the blood of his own father, Alexander himself gave a very original answer: “In that case, I would have tested positive for vodka.” Russian commentators on the Eurosport TV channel, who are directly at the scene of the events, refer to their well-vetted sources in the Astana team, who stated that Vinokurov must be absolutely clean and we are talking about some kind of provocation.

Whether this is true or not, time will tell. Exactly a year ago, American Floyd Landis, who became the best in the general classification of the Tour, also swore and swore that the increased testosterone content in his body had natural causes. And the same laboratory in Chatennay-Malabry, after long studies, excluding the slightest error, made the final verdict - Landis’ testosterone is of synthetic origin.

Even for an amateur, the metamorphoses that occurred with Vinokurov on this “Tour” will seem very strange. Before Saturday's time trial, the leader of Astana was behind the yellow jersey holder, Dane Michael Rasmussen, for more than eight minutes and was no longer considered a contender for the final victory in the general classification. However, Vinokurov won the individual time trial in the vicinity of the city of Albi with a solid margin of safety. The next day in the mountains, the Kazakhstani finished almost half an hour later than the stage winner, Spaniard Alberto Contador. However, on Monday Vino surprised again by being the best on the 196-kilometer route of the mountain stage with an assault on five peaks of varying difficulty categories.

Even if sample “B” does not confirm the result of sample “A” (although this is unlikely), the lost cannot be returned. “Astana” retired from the “Tour”, and in this situation we have to sympathize most with the German Andreas Kloden. He was fifth overall and, being an excellent time trialist, still had a chance of winning the Big Loop with a time trial scheduled for Saturday.

Yesterday the stage with a mountain finish was won by Rasmussen, who famously beat his main competitor Contador in the last kilometer. The overall advantage of the Dane over the Spaniard increased to 3 minutes. 10 sec. USI President McQuaid has previously openly stated that he does not want Rasmussen to win the Tour. The fact is that the Danish Cycling Federation, with the support of the National Olympic Committee of the Kingdom, recently removed Rasmussen from the list of candidates for the team for the upcoming World Championships in the fall. The reason is repeated cases of lack of information about the location of the Dane’s training camp, which is necessary for emissaries of anti-doping services for out-of-competition control.

Ilya TRISVIATSKY